03.02.2014
We interrupt this program to bring you … BrainDeadMaggot the Cowardly Author! starring BrainDeadMaggot! The Cowardly Author!
*BDM sitting behind desk, personal dokuro hanging in back, fugly ass trees at each side*
"I do NOT own One Piece! Eiichiro Oda Sensei does!"
Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that in the previous chapters. BAD BDM! BAD!
Warnings:
Mature language, Japanese language, maybe some violence (human, marimo, or animal. Not sure yet). Mostly Sanji's POV, I think. Pretty much written out episodes, but I threw in my own shit in, too. As lame as that sounds, this chapter is essential. Please don't hate me, cuz it's only chapter 2 and I'm already hating myself. I'm fucking this up ba~d.
Chapter 2
The ship swayed as gentle waves slapped against the hull. The red glow of dawn fading to a brilliant blue as the sun rose above the horizon.
Sanji is woken by a high pitch screaming coming from somewhere in the distance. 'What the hell?' He groans and pulls his pillow over his head. 'Don't tell me Patty started some shit before the breakfast rush again. Shitty mutant armed fucker.' Sanji stretches out in his hammock with a groan. 'Wait… Hammock? . . . !'
He shoots up to quickly misestimate his balance and fall to the hard wooden floor below. Somewhere nearby, the chef hears someone mutter. "Come back … you evil flying monkeys …" He shakes a limp fist at the ceiling, "Give me back my solid ruby slippers! The Queen of Cinder Isle gave those to me after I saved her Munchkin Army from rogue pumpkins!"
Sanji slowly lifts himself up to his knees. A boy only younger than him by a couple years, with an unusually long nose, was laying in the next hammock over. 'What the hell?' The long nose man shifts sideways in his sleep, tipping the hammock over and lands flat on his face. Sanji cringes as he sees his nose bend at such an extreme angle.
"Itai …" the dark skin mystery man groans as he sleepily rubs at his face. "Even if you drop me from the tallest building I shall never be harmed!" The blabbering man sits up from his place on the floor and shoots a fist above his head, "Fore I am Ca~ptain~ Uso-" He stops mid sentence when he cracks an eye open to find a one-eyed blonde crouching on the floor across from him.
"YEEEHHH~! CYCLOPS!" Lightning quick, he scoots back into some stacked crates. "W-w-who are you!" He yells out at the blonde man, pointed finger shaking in fear. His gaze darts around the room, "Where the hell am I?" he mutters under his breath. He jumps as a loud snore is heard from behind him.
"One more plate!" The two men stand from their spots on the floor and look at the third man.
"Gimme more meat!" He's wearing a red shirt and a yellow woven hat covering his face, "Just one more! No! Two more!" he cried holding up two fingers. "No! Three! No, four! No-"
His counting was cut short when a leather clad heel crashes down onto his head. "URUSAI!"
Standing up from where he had fallen, readjusting the hat on his head, the boy blurrily blinked at the two figures in front of him. "Ah? Ara*?" He stretches his arms above his head, "Aahh~ what a nice nap!" He hops up onto his sandaled feet and starts rummaging through cabinets and boxes. "Meshi* meshi meshi. Gotta find some breakfast."
Sanji shakes his head as he walks over to the couch situated on the other side of what he assumed was the mast of the ship., 'I have no idea what's going on but that guy is surely out of his mind.' He sits down and lights a cigarette, inhaling a soothing breath, effectively calming his nerves. "Oi." he says to the dark skinned man sitting on the couch adjacent to him. He answers him with a startled 'yes'. "Do you know what's going on?" The other looks at him confused and unsure how to answer. "I'm Sanji. I'm a chef on the floating restaurant, Baratie. I went to sleep last night in my own bed, yet I woke up here, on a ship I've never been in with two men I've never met before. Do you know why that is?"
Longnose-san, as he had decided to name him, is clutching at the knees of his brown overalls. He appears to be nerve wracked by Sanji's glare. 'He doesn't seem to know what's going on.' Meat-san, as he had decided to call the straw hatted boy, spoke up behind him. "Huh? What was that? You guys didn't save me?" Sanji furrows his brow at him, 'What? Saved him? What is he talking about?'
"Hi! I'm Luffy. I left my town to go on an adventure, but then there this huuuuuge whirlpool showed up! I didn't know what to do, so I hid inside a barrel but then I got really dizzy. Next thing I know, I woke up here with you guys. I thought you saved me."
'What the hell? A whirlpool? Did something like that happen to the Baratie? I don't remember there being a storm last night. I'm not exactly sure I can trust this guy. He's too damn carefree. Maybe he has something to do with this.'
"Well? Do you know anything? Something about this?" Sanji says turning to the long nose. "Do you know what we're doing here?"
Longnose-san tenses and starts to tremble. From the expression on his face, he seems to be having an internal battle with himself. After a moment, he finally speaks. "Okay. I'll tell you." He leans back in his seat and grins at the two men before him. "I'm not surprised you don't remember anything. -"
'This bastard does know something!'
"- We were attacked by that legendary monster whale, after all. After he swallowed you, I killed him and fished you out."
'Pssht! Like that really happened. Does he really think we're going to believe that mumbo jum-'
"Ah, so that's what happened! Thanks!" Sanji sweatdrops when he hears Meat-san open his mouth, again. 'Tsk. This idiot can't be serious.'
"Who the hell are you, anyway?" He can't help but think this is all just some conniving scheme to make him become their cook. He is a world class chef, after all. 'These people are probably trying to steal our secret formulas and take over the Baratie.'
"I'm so glad you asked!" The man jumps up and strikes an exaggerate pose, arm thrown back behind him, face contorted in angry concentration. "I am the leader of the greatest crew in all of East Blue - Usopp! My crew respects and refer to me as "Ca~ptain Uso~pp!"
'Okay, this is complete and utter bullshit. Him? A captain? Who the hell does he think he's fooli-'
"Waaah! CAPTAIN USOPP!"
"You remember him, Luffy?"
"Nope! Not at all!"
'Oh right, this guy.' Sanji hung his head in defeat.
This wasn't getting them anywhere. Longnose-san, aka Usopp, was obviously a compulsive liar, and Meat-san, aka Luffy, was a blumbering idiot who believes absolutely anything. The two idiots started yelling about Usopp's 8,000 men or something or other. 'This guy has no idea what's going on. He just woke up here like the rest of us did.' "What a liar" he says, not realizing he voicing his thoughts aloud. Usopp starts panicking and babbling about his lies behind found out. Luffy's laughing behind him, which causes Usopp to do something surprising, he stands his ground.
"Oi teme! Don't laugh at me! I'm a man of pride! Because of my great pride, everyone calls me 'Usopp the Proud'!
A breath passes through the room, Usopp and Luffy blink at each other. "What? What's wrong?" Sanji asks.
"N-nothing. I just … feels like I've done this before." Usopp blinked. "Yeah, me too." Luffy agrees.
Sanji looks down at his hands and finds his cigarette has burned down to the filter. He snuffs it out in the bowl that was sitting on the table and stands. "Let's just leave things at that. We need to eat first. No one can think straight on an empty stomach." They climb up the mast and make their way out of the cabin.
They climb up onto the deck of a fairly damaged ship and find themselves docked at an island. A door to their left opens and a woman steps out. She has black shoulder length black hair and bangs that hang over her dark blue eyes. Dark skin standing out against a pale lavender button down. Another woman, younger with short fiery orange hair and wearing a blue knit short sleeve shirt, was creeping around the doorway behind her. "Everyone, we have an emergency. Koukaishi*-san has -"
"Oh, who are they? Are they your followers too, Captain Usopp?" Luffy asks his "Captain".
"Have you all lost your memories, as well?" The older woman asks. She looks away from her Captain and sniper to see the cook standing in front of her.
There's an aura around the blonde man that seems to be bright and fresh. As if tiny bits of moisture in the air suck in the morning sunlight, sparkle gently and glow. 'Oh dear. Here it comes.'
"I now understand how a foolhardy moth feels as it flies inside a lamp." he says in a flitting voice. He raises his gaze up to meet hers. "He simply cannot stand being outside of something shining so brightly." 'That is how I feel whenever you're around, also.' she thought with a mental roll of her eyes.
He saunters over to the two beauties, rose in hand. "Oh, pretty ladies! What are your names?" He offers the raven and red hairs lush roses from … wherever they came from. "If you're free tonight, would you care to have dinner with me?"
Goddess-san, the cook decides to call the dark hair beauty, accepts her flower with a blush - stoic expression -, while Angel-chan, he decides to call the other, accepts hers with a giggle and beaming smile - grunt and a disgusted look. Somewhere behind him, Luffy is laughing about something, but he doesn't really care. He leans into Angel-chan who wraps an arm around him and hugs him tightly. She's saying something but he can't really make out her words, he's too lost in the melodic sound of her voice. 'She really is an Angel!'
There's a squeak, he turns to see a small brown figure wearing a pink hat."I'm a reindeer!" it yells out when Luffy and Usopp discuss his possible species. Luffy begins chasing the thing and the whole ship goes chaotic.
He hears Goddess-san speak and her voice is just as heavenly, lower than Angels but equally beautiful. "Everyone, please listen to me. Let me start with our current location. We are …"
Everyone freezes and stares at the calm woman. "What did you just say?" asked Usopp, eying her from the stairs.
"I said, 'We are on the Grand Line'. Did you even forget that?"
Sanji, taken by shock, slumps against a wall. 'The … Grand Line? But how? This can't be right. There's no way I can be on the Grand Line. I was just in East Blue yesterday! How could you possibly sail all the way to the Grand Line in just one night?!'
"By the way, Miss." he calmly asks the older woman. 'How does she know all this?' "I need to get back to my restaurant in East Blue. Do you know any way to get there?"
"I think you should reconsider." she says turning to him. "Simply entering this sea is quite dangerous. Any attempt to find your way out alone would be suicidal."
'Ah, man. What the hell have I gotten myself into?' He walks to the rail and stares out into the horizon. The ocean looks calm and, well, normal. 'The Grand Line, huh. Shit, Owner* is gonna be so pissed at me.'
The warm morning sun, high pitch screaming. Cool ocean breeze, loud arguing. Seagulls cawing overhead, a loud crash and cries of pain.
'Holy shit, what the hell is going on out there!?' The swordsman stretches from his place on a hardwood floor. 'Floor? Why am I sitting? Did they move me to of the holding cells? But I can feel the sun.' He cracks open his eyes and is greeted by a bright blue sky. He's sitting in a wooden bucket, a pole sticking out of the center. There's a black flag tied to it, fluttering in the wind. 'I'm on a pirate ship? Why am I here, and in the crow's nest no less. What the hell is going on?!'
He hears a feminine voice floats up in the wind and peers down below. Five people stand on the deck; a woman appears to be discussing with the four others. "Anyway, counting the other member, we seven pirates have been sailing across this sea." She turns her head up towards him and he ducks down, 'Shit, she saw me!'
"How about coming down, Kenshin*-san?" she calls up to him.
'How'd she know?' he wonders, grasping at Wado's hilt without looking. 'Ah, fuck. No use in hiding now.' He stands up and hops over the edge of the nest, landing on the deck below with a loud thud.
"You sure enjoy making noise early in the morning." he says with an annoyance in his voice. "You interrupted my morning nap."
A boy with an abnormally long nose - 'Freak.' - shoots a shaky finger at him, "W-w-who are you?! What's your name?!"
He straightens and turns to the kid, "When you ask for someone's name, it's proper to give your own first." 'Tsk, now I sound like Koshiro-sensei*'
The longnose was just about to answer when someone behind him cuts him off, "I'm Luffy! Nice to meechya!" He turns to see another kid, one wearing a straw hat. 'Straw hat? Just like on the flag.' - smiling at him gleefully.
"I'm Roronoa Zoro." he answers. Another voice speaks up behind him. 'What am I doing here? Playing musical voices?! Man, I hate standing in the middle of talk-too-much retards.'
"The Pirate Hunter?" a handsome blonde with a cigarette in his hand asks. Zoro scowls at this. "I never called myself 'Pirate Hunter'. Things just turned out that way." he answers gruffly. The smoker pops the cigarette in his lips and smoothly slides his hands into his pants' pockets, "Last I heard, you were a bounty hunter." Zoro tilted his head lazily, "I was only in that line of work so I could eat. It was never my goal to become one."
A blue eye narrows at the green haired man. 'To eat, he says.' "But since you're here, you must have been after this ship."
"Not sure." he replies honestly with a shrug, "I've no idea what I'm doing here. Are you guys famous pirates?"
The longnose twitches and points at him. Again. "Hey! You wanna fight?! I-if you're ready, then let's go! I have 8,000 followers to back me up!"
"Oh, that so?" With an evil grin Zoro pulls Wado from his belt and widens his stance. "Then I'll be collecting quite the bounty today, won't I?" Wado's saya* is slowly pulled away, "I've been low on food money - " he doesn't fail to notice the blonde man twitch slightly as he says this. " - lately. If you're gonna challenge me, then I'll take your head."
Longnose goes on the defense and throws his hands up, fingers splayed out wide. "No! N-no! That's not what I meant!" He turns to the older woman with frightful eyes, "Oi, help me out here!"
The woman meets the swordsman's graze. "Nagahana-kun* isn't worth a single belly." she says coolly. Behind her, Longnose cries out in distress, "Not even one?!"
Suddenly, a loud rumbling comes from inside the ship, and a orange haired girl on a thing* that looks like a cross between a bike and a boat rushes out an open door. She then speeds off, running Longnose over and disappears into the horizon. 'Oh look, an island.'
"She took off … man, that looks like fun." Straw hat says looking out after the red head. 'I don't know what's going on, but there doesn't seem to be any point sticking around here.'
Zoro pulls Wado and his two other swords - 'Huh?! These aren't mine!' - from his haramaki*, and ties them to his head with his bandana. He hops over the rail and swims to shore. 'Maybe there's something on that island that can help clear things up.' He looks back over his shoulder at the ship one last time before continuing on. 'I can't stand around all day playing guessing games. I have a promise to keep.'
Lush green surrounded a clearing in the woods. The songs of wild birds melding with the whispering of branches in the breeze. Sunlight dappled between branches, creating a tranquil glow through the air. A lone figure stood in the center of the vast beauty. It was pristine and fragrant and absolutely breath-taking…
"Where the fuck is the town?"
An island of bounty hunters, giants, dinosaurs, snow and sand countries, bottomless white seas of clouds, a pegasus, cities of gold, giant bean stalks, tako*-balloons, Marine strongholds, daaachshund*, foxes, and Davy Back Fights.
The dark haired woman, who introduced herself as Nico Robin, had explained to them some of the adventures they had over breakfast. According to Robin, she had joined the crew two weeks before - but had first met them a month ago - and didn't know much about their travels prior to that. Sanji had been a pirate for at least a month. And to make matters worse, three of his crewmates were Akuma No Mi* users. Chopper, the ships doctor and a reindeer who ate the Hito Hito No Mi; Robin, the ship's archeologist, who ate the Hana Hana No Mi; and Luffy, a man worth a hundred million belly, who ate the Gomu Gomu No Mi and he was only 17. This carefree, meat loving, bottomless-pit-for-a-stomach kid was a threat to the World Government. 'How the fuck does shit like this happen?! That idiot?! Well, okay. Yes, he did love my cooking, so he's not that bad. And yes, he had managed to get such beautiful ladies to join his crew, but still! How can he be such a doofus?!'
Sanji lights a cigarette and leaned against the sink, which was piled high with Luffy's dirty dishes. 'It's a bit hard to swallow, but the arrangement and equipment of the kitchen are somewhat telling. Everything is oddly in order. And to my preferences, no less! Maybe this is my kitchen.'
Robin explains to them the night before and how they had arrived to the island. She stayed up all night reading while the others slept and Zoro had been on watch. "From the way he was bitching, it sounded like the Pirate Hunter fell asleep, too." Sanji adds, putting out his cigarette. "Would you like another cup of coffee, Robin-san?" "Yes, please." she replies with a gentle smile.
"In other words," he continues, lighting up a kettle of water. "only the people who went to sleep lost their memories."
"That seems to be a logical deduction, but we mustn't jump to conclusions."
"I've never heard of a case like this!" Chopper, the little reindeer-human, exclaims. "Of all the medical books I've read over the years, there has never been an incident such as this."
"I'd like to ask you," Robin's dark eyes search the men's earnestly. "What is the most recent thing you can remember?"
"I got back from gathering medical herbs with Doctorine. I thought I went to sleep in the castle… but when I woke up, I was here."
"I was … You're ignoring me?!" Usopp huffs at her.
"I was sucked in by a giant whirlpool. When I woke up, I was here." Luffy explains around a mouthful of potatoes.
"I finished work in the kitchen and went to sleep in my room, but when I woke up, I was here."
"And you don't remember anything after that?"
The kettle suddenly whistles, the water boiling and ready. The four boys in the room tense, eyes going wide with realization.
"That's right! I heard a low-pitched horn playing somewhere!"
"Myah, a horm! I herd a horm, too!"
"Come to think of it …"
"T-there was this k-kid that appeared in front of me."
"Wait a minute. You mean to say we didn't lose our memories… that they were stolen by some shitty brat?!"
"I can't be sure," Robin voices out. "but it certainly sounds like that child is the key to all of this."
"But," Chopper adds with concern. "does that mean we'll lose more memories if we fall asleep, again?"
This was getting bad. If they fell asleep again they would lose even more memories. Possibly even forget who they even were. Sanji lights another cigarette, trying to calm his shaken nerves and think of a way to get through the situation. That is until that carefree voice decided to speak again.
"Who cares if we have our memories? It's too bad we can't remember all our fun adventures but that doesn't mean we can't just start having new ones together!" Luffy laughs.
'You dense mother fucker…"
"A-are you insane?!" Usopp yelled. "We might lose all of our memories! We're talking about our lives and dreams being comple-"
"That won't happen." Luffy states firmly. "My dream will never disappear. Whether I forget my own name or not, I will never lose sight of my dream. I bet you guys are the same, too."
'Wow. Maybe this guy isn't as he seems.' Sanji wonders as he stares at the smoke in his hand. Usopp collapses in his sit and Robin chuckles daintily into her hand when Chopper let's out a yell. "Waah?! My food is gone!"
Luffy gets a faceful of foot when his laugh gives him away. "Don't eat other people's food!"
"Sumimasen*…"
'I don't know what to make of this guy. Taking him seriously would make ME look stupid.'
The rest of the day went by uneventfully, Sanji had made many snacks and drinks for his crew, he had come to accept that much. Their ship's doctor, had tried making some sort of medicine to restore memory, each attempt either failed or spilled across the deck by an excited Luffy. Usopp had made stupid ass "My Name" tags. Those got chucked into the ocean immediately.
'What the hell! I'm not an aho lovelyn.' Sanji scowled as he scrubbed the last of the dishes from dinner. 'Bastard trying to start shit with me.'
Robin, who turned out to be an archeologist, studied nearly her entire library looking for clues, anything about memory loss or the island. The beautiful scholar wasn't able to find anything but that didn't dampen Sanji's day, he was glad enough to just spend so much time with the mysterious woman. 'Ahh, if only Koukai-neechan* were here. Robin spoke so lovely of her. If both ladies were here, all I need to do next is find a way to get rid of the three dorks.' The three dorks were out on the deck - Luffy up on the goat figurehead, claiming it to be his special seat - with Robin testing out Chopper's latest drug. 'It can't be safe to try so many drugs in one day, can it?'
Sanji dried the last plate and stacked everything away in the cupboards. 'Hopefully that green headed Pirate Hunter gets lost somewhere. We don't need him back. I don't care if he lost his memories, to threaten the whole ship during their very first meeting means he's got a fucked up head. Maybe all that moss growing out of his skull affected his brain.'
That was one thing he didn't expect to see when he first met the man. The green hair had been quite odd. He wasn't surprised, however, to see the three katana at his hip, it is what he was most famous for. Another thing that struck the cook by surprise was his overall physique. He had expected the famous Roronoa Zoro to be big and burly. Maybe an older man riddled with scars and gnarly ropes of muscles bulging out of his skin, but he was completely the opposite. He was young, probably his own age. He wasn't huge but still very muscular, his upper body strength clearly the source of his power. He was even a pretty decent looking guy; dressed normal, he looked clean, three gold earrings hung from his ear, a bit attractive if he were to be honest. But he's not.
Sanji recalls a time while cooking for the lunch crowd that Carne burst through the door with newspaper and a crazy smile on his face. "Guys, you'll never believe this! The Pirate Hunter's done it again!"
According to the article, Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro, had wandered into a tavern full of one of East Blue's notorious pirate crews. He didn't have money to pay the barman so he casually asked if anyone present had a bounty. Dumbshit nearly destroyed the bar! In the end he had flatten the whole crew, cashed in more than enough for pay for his tab and the damages, then went on his merry way like nothing happened.
'Sure it was a cool story and yeah, I thought it was pretty badass at the time but now? Putting his hair aside, he looked completely normal, and yet he's capable of all those things. He's fucking insane! And to think that monster is my crewmate? No, he can't come back.'
"Achoo~!" Zoro sniffed. "Man, where the hell is that damn town. Maybe this is an uninhabited island." 'But I was so sure I saw a port back on that ship.'
He gazed out into the sunset from where he sat on a cliff. He had walked for hours trying to find the town he thought he saw. Maybe it was just a trick of the eye, maybe it wasn't there at all. Or maybe, it had moved. Again. Just like they always do. He thought back to the ship. He had heard parts of the pirates' conversation. They were on the Grand Line, and the others had lost their memories. He more than likely had lost his as well. It only made sense.
'My memories, eh?' He thought back to Koshiro. When Kuina died, Zoro was torn apart. He had lost his rival, his partner, his best friend. After her funeral he had asked her father to give him her katana.
"I'll become stronger for her! Until my name reaches heaven itself, I'll become the world's greatest swordsman! I promised her!"
"Very well," Koshiro held out Wado Ichimura to him. "I will entrust Kuina's soul and dream to you."
'I have never let those words die. I set out to sea to become the greatest swordsman. That last thing I remember was that Captain's son denying him food again.'
He had arrived at an new island and wandered around the town. It held a Marine base so he had hoped to come across a bounty to collect. He was searching for a restaurant when he walked in on a rather unsettling situation. Some wolf ran wild through town and it decided it was a nice idea to attack a little girl armed with a broom. He only did what anyone would have done, he grabbed a stool and threw it at the beast, effectively killing it. Turned out that the mutt was some snot-nosed blonde bastard's pet.
Said bastard turn out to be Captain Morgan's tailcoat riding son. He threatened Zoro to agree to survive a sentence of one month of no food water or he would kill the little girl and her mother. He accepted his challenge, and they confiscated his swords then tied him to a post in the middle of the base's courtyard. He would have woken up to his twentieth day of his sentence, but somehow he ended up in some pirate ship's crow's nest.
He couldn't remember anything after that. Then there was the two katana. When had he gotten them? The sword with the red saya seemed to sing and reverberate. 'A cursed sword? How did I get these? I seem unusually accustomed to wearing them. What's going on?'
He feels a presence, someone is watching him from the trees.
"Piiman, Ninjin … stop trying to tie Tamanegi* to the flagpole with old shoelaces … you're supposed to use candied pig intestines … here, lemme show you."
"No … That's my meat … you can't have it! … Give it back you ugly croc … butto basu*!"
"Tanuki ja nai* … gimme that candy floss … kono-yaro*."
Robin smiles down at her sleeping (and flailing) crewmates. She closed the book in her hands and moves over to the dining table where Cook-san is sleeping. As she drapes a blanket over his shoulders, Sanji awakens. "Oh, shit." he moans, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Did I wake you, Cook-san? You can sleep a bit longer. If anything unusual happens I'll wake you up."
"No, I'm alright. Thank you, Robin-san. I'll make some coffee to help you stay awake."
"Thank you," she says with a smile and moves to drape the blanket over Luffy, who's sprawled out on the floor, instead. "I'd like some."
Suddenly, a low-pitched horn is heard from outside. Robin and Sanji run out the galley to find a young boy with a strange doll in his hands standing atop Merry's head.
"You're awake, Neesan." The boy says to Robin.
"Are you the one who's stolen everyone's memories?"
The boy chuckles darkly. "An impressive deduction, but it's too late"
Behind her, the three sleeping boys stir and seem to be struggling. Using her abilities, three hands blossom out of the floor boards. "Wake up, everyone! Hurry!"
"My, what an interesting power you have." the boy says with interest.
Usopp and Chopper sit up on the floor and blink sleepily. "Huh? What?" they say in chorus.
"YAAH! He's here!" Usopp screams. "WAAAH!"
Luffy crawls up to his knees and adjusts his hat. "Nanda*? Asa meshi ka*?"
The boy scowls at Robin, "That wasn't very nice of you to wake everyone up, Neesan. Now I have no choice." He holds up his doll, oddly shaped like a seahorse, and blows into its tail.
"The horn!" Sanji realizes. Robin cross her arms to stop the boy, but its too late. A sudden sensation flits through his body, he feels dizzy. Out of the corner of his eye, he see Robin fall to the ground.
"Robin!" He rushes to her side and helps her up.
"Aah!" Luffy rushes out the galley and yells at the boy. "What the hell are you doing?! You can't stand on that! That's my special seat! Don't touch it!" Luffy stretches his arm out and grabs onto the goat's horns and shoots off toward him. The boy kicks Luffy's hand loose and he lands into the figure head's neck. He ends up flipping over and kicks the seahorse, knocking it out of the kid's clutches.
A strange blue mist starts spilling out of the seahorse and engulfs Luffy. This buys the kid enough time to jump ship and escape. "What is that stuff?!" Usopp cries out. Luffy loses consciousness, falls off the figure head and lands on the deck.
"Oi," Sanji says has approaches the others. "shouldn't we help him?" "He isn't moving" the archeologist blue mist now entering through his nostrils. Chopper frantically calls for a doctor not realizing he is, in fact, the doctor on board.
After the last of the blue mist enters his body, Luffy's eyes open and he groggily sits up. He blinks for a few moments before throwing his arms above his head with a big shit eating grin.
"MY MEMORY'S BACK!"
Deep in the forest, a small bonfire burns bright. Not far behind, a low chuckle floats across the wind. The swordsman readies his weapon, but sees no movement. He relaxes and stares back into the dancing flames.
'Shit.'
He looks up. The sky a thick black blanket littered with pearl white stars. 'Now what?'
Midnight. It's cold. It's dark. And it's noisy as fuck. Luffy, the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates was currently singing and dancing around with the little doctor, hashi* stuffed in their noses and lips.
"I'm so glad I got my memory back or we'd all be stuck in Usopp's crew forever!" the CAPTAIN sings out. "Shihihi! Yeah, yeah! Kick higher, Chopper!"
"That rubber monkey got his memories back, yet he's still acting the same." Sanji mutters around a lit stick. 'Calm the hell down…'
"Senchou-san* never changes, no matter what." Robin explains beside him. "Now we know your deduction was correct. Your memories were indeed stolen and we know who the thief is."
Luffy abruptly stops his fun and yells. "Ah! Wait! We got to get Nami and Zoro back! Ikazou, minna*!" He's already making a move for the railing when Robin interjects.
"We should wait until morning, Senchou-san. Landing on an unknown island and trying to find two people this late at night is a recipe for disaster. We should wait until dawn. I don't think that boy will be back tonight. We did give him a bit of trouble."
"I guess you have a point." Luffy says thoughtfully. "Okay! We wait until morning! Ahahaha!"
"Wait a second." Sanji crushes his smoke under his shoe and halts the rubber-boy before he gets too excited. "I'm all up for getting Nami-san back, but can't we just leave the muscle bastard here?"
Usopp shouts his agreements. "Why do we need to go after them? They wanted to leave, so let them leave. Besides, that guy scares me." Beside Luffy, Chopper timidly voices his opinion on the matter. "I…"
"What are you guys talking about?!" Luffy questions. "Isn't it obvious? They are nakama! We each have our own role on this crew. Usopp's the sniper, Sanji's the cook, Chopper's the doctor, Robin's the archeologist, Nami's the navigator, and Zoro's the swordsman. We are Straw Hat Pirates! We won't leave anyone behind."
'Man,' Sanji rolls an unlit cigarette between his fingers. 'He really is the Captain.'
"All we have to do is beat up that kid with the mantle and we'll get our memories back. Tomorrow's a big day! Let's get some sleep!"
Author Notes and Glossary
Thank you so much for reading! I'm supeeer~ not happy with how this went. I wanted this up yesterday but I was having difficulty finishing on time. I'm so sorry if this chapter sucked. Next chapter coming out soon!
Ara - an expression that means lots of things like 'huh', 'whoa'. Ara ara can mean 'oh me oh my'.
Meshi - food.
Owner - Zeff, owner and head chef of Baratie.
Kenshin - swordsman. After learning, this I wondered if in Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X 'Himura Kenshin' was his real name.
Koshiro-sensei - Zoro's kendo instructor and mentor. Kuina's father. Sensei means teacher.
Saya - a katana's scabbard or sheath.
Nagahana-kun - Long (naga), Nose (hana). Kun - a suffix/honorific you add at the end of a name. Usually for men, can also be used from woman of a lower status such as from a boss to an employee or a teacher to a student. At least that's how I understood it, I might be wrong though.
Thing - Nami's waver that Pagaya fixed in Skypiea.
Haramaki - a belly warmer. That green band around Zoro's waist. It's a thing old men wear. Feel free to make fun of him now that you know ^_^
Daaachshund - long dachshund. yeah.
Akuma No Mi - Devil's Fruit. Hito - human, Hana - flower, Gomu - rubber
Tako - octopus.
Gomu-ningen - 'rubber' and 'human' respectively.
Sumimasen - excuse me/pardon/I'm sorry
Koukaishi - navigator/navigation officer.
Nee-san/chan - short for anee-sama/-san. Means sister, but can also be used to refer to an unnamed girl, whether older or not. A much older woman is referred to as ba-san or baa-san, Aunt/Granny respectively. For men, nii and ji/jii are used in the same sense.
Usopp Pirates - The four and only members of the Usopp Pirates were Captain Usopp, Piiman (Pepper), Ninjin (Carrot), and Tamanegi (Onion). The crew disbanded when Usopp joined Luffy.
Butto basu - … kick your ass!
Tanuki ja nai - "I'm not a tanuki (raccoon dog)". Ja nai is used to negate what is said.
Kono yaro - lit. 'that' and 'bastard'. Translates as 'asshole'
Nanda - what? / what's that?
Asa meshi ka? - Luffy's way of asking "Breakfast?" Morning = asa, meshi = food, ka = ? / signals that the sentence is a question.
Hashi - chopsticks.
Senchou - captain.
Ikazo - Let's go! or 'follow' depending on the context
Minna - guys, everyone.
That's it, I'm outta here!
